1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to vehicles that do not use internal combustion engines and therefore do not require diesel, gasoline, alcohol, ethanol, natural gas, or other liquid gases or fuels. In particular, the present invention relates generally to electric vehicles operated by at least one electric motor connected to a drive axel to propel said electric vehicle and rechargeable batteries to provide stored electrical energy to said electric motor; in which the electric motor is powered and the batteries are recharged by multiple power sources including solar, thermal, wind, and electrical.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Due to the continuous depletion of world supply of fossil fuel and the continuous increase in both fuel cost and horrible pollution to the environment caused by harmful gases or oil spills from oil carriers and oil wells around the world such as the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, alternative green sources of energy have been investigated for possible use in powering vehicles, such as automobiles, trucks, buses, trains, airplanes, etc. Such investigations are focused on electrically powered vehicles driven by at least one electric motor due to the non-polluting nature inherent with electrical motors and in view of the ready supply of electricity to run the electric motors.
A permanent connection of the electric motor to electrical power supply lines is impossible due to the mobility of the vehicles, that is, vehicles are not fixed at one location. Therefore, in an electrically powered vehicle, a set of batteries are mounted within the vehicle used as storage to supply electricity needed to run the electric motor(s) and all other functions in the vehicle.
In previously constructed electric vehicles, batteries are typically heavy and are required in large numbers to provide an adequate driving range between recharging periods. Batteries are recharged at home, office, recharging stations, etc. by suitable power supply units that convert AC energy derived from the national electricity grid to DC energy to recharge the batteries. Therefore, such batteries still utilize electricity generated by conventional means such as fossil fuel, coal, hydro, nuclear, etc. with dire consequences to the environment and destructive impacts to humans and animals alike.
Other designs used wind turbines to generate electricity to charge the batteries where these turbines are placed on the top of the vehicle. Such action ignores most of the useful wind streams surrounding the vehicle, especially the very important right side and left side wind streams, and increases drag forces on the vehicle, hence, reducing the effective electric power generated from the wind turbine's generator. Additionally the designs are not practical or even not safe for domestic use.
Other types of electric vehicles use solar panels to generate electricity to recharge the batteries and often-such designs are not successful for regular vehicles with many passengers driving on a typical highway due to the limited area and the low efficiency of the solar panels, hence, the limited electric power they generate.
Most of the previously proposed electric vehicles have limitations in driving range, driving speed, number of passengers, and/or safety. In addition, some electric vehicles depend directly or indirectly on fossil fuel, coal, hydro, nuclear, etc. with dire consequences to the environment. Examples of prior art electric vehicles are found in several patents.
In Dykes U.S. Pat. No. 3,575,250 (1971) a two-wheeled vehicle with a quick-disconnect battery hung between the two wheels is connected to a variety of wheeled devices, such as a supermarket cart, to provide an articulated assembly driven by the two-wheeled vehicle. Each wheel of the two-wheeled vehicle has its own motor. The motors are series-connected at one setting and parallel connected at another, and “in turning, one of the motors will load and slow down and the other will speed up in a differential action to assist in the turning of the vehicle.”
In Adams U.S. Pat. No. 3,934,669 (1976) a two wheeled, electric vehicle having an outer contour resembling a piece of luggage is proposed. An electrically powered motor mounted to the steering column provides the motive force for driving the steered wheel to propel the vehicle.
In Dow U.S. Pat. No. 3,190,387 (1965) a four-wheeled vehicle has two drive wheels each provided with its own motor carried on the vehicle frame, which is sprung on the wheels. The batteries are carried over the rear axle of the vehicle but forwardly of the motors and on the sprung frame.
In Hafer U.S. Pat. No. 3,708,028 (1973) an electric truck is provided with a battery pack that can be positioned and removed from the side of the truck with a forklift truck.
In Ward U.S. Pat. No. 4,042,055 (1977) an electric vehicle can carry “two 180-pound riders and two 20 or 30-pound golf bags, more than 40 holes on a moderately hilly golf course using four standard 62.5 pound 6-volt rechargeable batteries.”
In Maki et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,960,090 (1976) an electric vehicle powered by a linear synchronous motor is proposed. “The linear synchronous motor comprises a series of field poles fitted on the vehicle body along its total length and a series of magnetic devices being provided along a track on the ground facing these field poles and developing a traveling magnetic field. A driving force developed between these field poles and the magnetic devices causes the vehicle to move.” The magnetic devices on the truck are energized by external electrical current sources.
Reed U.S. Pat. No. 5,680,908 (1997) proposed an electrically powered vehicle comprising at least one electric motor and a set of rechargeable batteries. His invention relies only one source of energy based on electric generator means connected to an axle to generate electricity to power the motor and recharge the batteries.
Boudreaux U.S. Pat. No. 7,605,493 (2009) proposed an electrical vehicle powered by a generator and the generator driven by gasoline. This, in turn, will cause the same dire impacts on the environment produced by a regular fossil fuel vehicle or alike.
In Richardson U.S. Pat. No. D374,656 (1996) an ornamental design for a car top wind generator is presented. This design is not only dangerous but deemed useless due to the huge drag forces it generates. Similarly in Trumpy U.S. Pat. No. 4,282,944 (1981) a wind motor generator with three vanes mounted on the top of the vehicle is also presented.
In Amick U.S. Pat. No. 4,117,900 (1978) a passenger car deriving all or a part of its motive power from the wind through a system of one or more rigid vertical airfoils is presented. In Bussiere U.S. Pat. No. 4,423,368 (1983) a turbine air battery charger is presented. Bussiere collects only a portion of the top wind steam ignoring all front and side winds surround the vehicle. He divides one air stream into two outlets driving two wind turbines rather than combing the two outlets mechanically to drive only one turbine.
Brierley U.K. Pat. No. GB2126963A (1982) proposed an air-powered electrical vehicle yet ignoring all side wind streams surrounding the vehicle.
In Kim U.S. Pat. No. 7,445,064 B2 (2008) a vehicle using wind force is presented and a wind ventilator is placed externally on the top of the vehicle's trunk. This design harnesses a small portion of the wind forces and ignores most upper winds, all right side, and left side winds surrounding the vehicle.
Tomei U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,436 (1986) proposed a solar powered vehicle utilizing solar panels to charge storage batteries for energizing the electric motor of an electric vehicle. Due to the limited area of the solar panels used on the vehicle and their low efficiency, electric vehicles powered exclusively by solar panels may have many limitations, especially in speed, efficiency, weight, and number of passengers.
Bancodin U.S. Pat. No. 7,493,974 (2009) proposed a solar powered thermoelectric vehicle lacking an internal combustion engine that includes a bundle of fiber optics to collect the heat from the vehicle exterior. The reliability of this vehicle is in question, especially, the design does not include any batteries to store power and derive the electrical motor during poor weather conditions when the solar energy is not adequately available. However, the inventor claims that the vehicle is operational in the absence of sunlight since “the vehicle's power source can be heated by plugging it into a conventional household or office outlet for a few minutes”!
Hulen U.S. Pat. No. 6,831,221 (2004) proposed a method for powering a vehicle from a reflected heat from the surface to a heat receptor. His method is based on insulating a first region of a paved surface with a material that transmits visible light but prevents heat from escaping; and providing heat from a second uninsulated region of the paved surface for conversion to another form of energy for providing power to the structure. Hence, such method is impractical, very expensive and may require repaving all the roads and the highways around the world to generate a very small portion of the energy that a vehicle may require.
While all the previous devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not disclose a new reliable, self-standing, solar/thermal/wind/electrically powered electric vehicle where all or most wind forces are harnessed and converted to electricity, all or most solar energy is collected and converted to electricity, all or most radiated heat is collected and converted to electricity, and a lot of electric energy is internally harnessed by at least one electric generator.
In these respects, the electric vehicle according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing, provides an apparatus and method primarily developed for the purpose of constructing a reliable, fuel-free, engineless electric vehicle, capable of being used by one or many passengers at normal speeds in cities and towns, and on highways and byways, day or night and in rain or shine.